This month to be exact on September 24th, Graphic Design USA will be publishing an extensive stock photography survey.
What’s so interesting about this? It says that 94% of all respondents use Royalty Free images and only 41% use Rights Managed. And if that wasn’t a big enough of a blow to those of you who insist that Rights Managed is the only way you do business here is your next wake up call. 67% already are using Microstock images and 60% subscription models.
There is no question in my mind why this is such a trend and why this trend is here to stay. People, businesses and solopreneurs need more images than ever before. But, they don’t want to and most of the time they can’t afford to manage and negotiate rights and they don’t want to pay premium fees. A good enough image works just fine. This is for the majority of users. I do believe that businesses will continue to use RM for very specific uses of brand leading campaigns.
Here is the blurb and your link:
GDUSA SPECIAL STOCK SURVEY PREVIEW
Sponsored By iStockphoto
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: MOMENTUM GROWS, TENSIONS REMAIN
More creative professionals are using more stock imagery for more reasons in more projects with more frequency than ever before. That is the fundamental finding of GDUSA’s 24th Annual Survey. But, of course, this has both positive and negative ramifications. A brief preview of the survey results follow, and the full report will appear in the September GDUSA magazine out next week.
— Gordon Kaye
Please click here to see the published excerpts of the survey.
I’m 21 years old, I love photography, in consumes my life. Reading this is a bit scary for me because I’m a commercial photographer. Well I don’t have clients I want as yet but I know I’m capable of the job but I’m extremely confused for the most part.
Now, reading this what I’m getting is that people are straying away from what I want to offer? I sort of making me mad to think that clients wouldn’t want to sit down and get images for them that’s unique. What the hell does that mean the image works just fine!
The image is more than that..it should be more thank just okay.
Everyday I become more confused.
—
DT.
Miami, Florida | Nassau, Bahamas
Dwayne,
Thank you for this great comment. I will address this in a new blog post. You are not alone with these sentiments.
Beate
Dwayne, don’t be too disheartened by these statistics. There’s always more to them than meets the eye. For example, iStockphoto recently admitted that their business model is no longer viable and so cut the already pathetic royalties to their contributors even further. You can watch some of the fallout here: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=253522&page=1
And remember, while a majority of respondents to this survey use microstock, 41% still use RM which pays many, many multiples per image what microstock does, with less damage to the industry.
Also my experience is increasingly that discerning clients – designers and end users – are finding microstock bland, generic and increasingly difficult to search. I’m winning new business by showing what the difference is between a business presenting itself as faceless and clinical, and one which shows its true self to existing and potential clients and investors.
Microstock is here to stay, but it will increasingly become the preserve of the designer with no imagination, or the foundling business with limited funds. As businesses grow they need to market themselves with greater panache. That’s where we come in.
Keep your chin up and keep looking for real, discerning clients.
Well followed up Tim, offering the other side of the reality coin.
Beate does comment over on Linkedin “What’s fishy about that? It’s a company owned by private equity firms with graduates from the best business schools in the world. They run it like a mean and lean business and take advantage of their market position. They don’t care about you as an individual, never have and never will. It’s about the bottom line.”
This is the reason that I would never sign up to iStock, it is not a matter of pride or principle just a matter of choosing not to deal with the low end of life. There are so many good clients out there you just have to go find them. 20 years a go it was hard, 10 years a go it was hard today its hard. Nothing has changed.